Eat Your Vegetables
When it comes to vegetables, kids in East Harlem have the same thoughts as kids anyplace else.
“They’re nasty,” said Sixth-grader Essence Holmes in an interview with the Associated Press.
Getting children to eat their greens is a challenge; but in Harlem, where diabetes and obesity rates are much higher than the national average, it’s more important than ever. That’s why a charter school in my neighborhood is in the national spotlight. Promise Academy, an East Harlem school where food is as important as homework, strictly enforces a regimen of unprocessed, regionally grown food and bans sugary snacks.
Education officials throughout the country are examining the school program closely. They are looking at how the effects of good food and exercise on students' health and school performance can be measured and replicated.
What I find particularly interesting about this story is that Promise Academy, located on 125th Street and Madison Avenue, is surrounded by several all-you-can-eat, deep-fried, fast food restaurants. The good eating habits the students are learning at Promise Academy are being put to the test the moment they leave school. It seems finding an unbuttered vegetable in this area can be as tough to track down as a fresh bagel…
posted by Rachel Natalie Klein at 2:07 AM
3 Comments:
Harlem gets the worst fruits and vegetables in NYC. It's all old and brown. It's unfair. With the diabetes & obesity rates so high, how can the neighborhood get healthier without better produce?
I spoke to Harlemite Nigel Tyrell, the owner of the all-natural fruit drink shop "Fruits Alive", earlier this week. He said something similar about the quality of fruit in the neighborhood.
He told me that that the fresh fruit he used to make the drinks in his shop didn't come from Harlem - that he had to go outside of the neighborhood to get his ingredients.
"We deserve better," he said.
Hello. I came here through the New York Times article, and I really dig your blog. I've been living in East Harlem for the past 5 years and am a big fan of the neighborhood. The fruits and vegetables are bad, but they've gotten better since when I first moved here. Change will take time, but it's definitely happening. I remember being shocked when my local grocery store stocked POM (whatever that over-priced pomegrenate juice is called) a couple of years ago.
Rock on. :)
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